Like A Stain
by Her Is In Hero
Summary: A persons Soulmate could be any number of a billion different people, chosen by the decisions each person makes in life the mark forms when one particular path is realised. The mark is not the first words a Soulmate says, but the ones that solidify the relationship. Skye was 17. Trip joined S.H.I.E.L.D. Hunter was heartbroken. Bobbi doesn't believe in Soulmarks
1. Came To Get You

_**Came To Get You**_

Skye had been 17 when her mark formed; an itching, tingling sensation on her left palm that had nearly interrupted her first big hack.

It was only after the hack was finished, the information released to the masses who had a right to know what was really happening in the world, that she took the time to look at her hand. Four words scrawled just under the top curve of her palm in a dark chocolate brown, neat handwriting; 'Came to get you!'

Her Soulmark!

Not everyone had a Soulmark, but most people developed one at some point in their lifetime. Not the first words spoken between two people, but the most significant. The ones that solidified the relationship. Of course, not everyone lived by them - just stupid words scrawled on their skin, according to Miles - but after living her entire life with no-one wanting her it came as somewhat of a relief that there was someone _destined_ to her.

Someone who was supposedly fated to love her. She'd been sent back and rejected her whole life - even her parents didn't want her - until the Rising Tide and Miles. But, Miles and the Rising Tide didn't love her, they wanted her computer skills, Miles wanted her body, her Soulmate would love her no matter what... Or at least that's what the rumors were.

Unconditional love.

The ideal dream for a life-long foster kid who had run away from the system. Somewhere to be loved, to belong, where she was wanted not because of what she could do with a computer.

The funny thing to Skye was that she'd dreamed of nameless-faceless people saying her words - or something of the like - to her for her whole life. That they had come to get her, they hadn't abandoned her, that they loved her. Her parents. That hadn't happened, though so she was left to find them herself. And how her supposed Soulmate was going to say the words she'd been wanting to hear for as long as she could remember.

* * *

At 24 (she'd later learn that she was actually 25 at the time) Skye was recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D.  
A redacted document had led her to them, so she had led them to her, and Mike Peterson - the Hooded Hero - had unwittingly given her a way into the organisation that seemed to be at the root of her search for answers.

She'd read once that a persons Soulmate could be any of a billion different people, but it was the decisions they made that decided who it was. She'd received her mark while hacking for the Rising Tide. Her mark felt like it was singing against her skin when she said yes to Coulson. Her mark was a warm comfort against her hand, guiding her decisions as much as her decisions had formed the mark.

"Birthmarks, Soulmarks, tattoos or piercings?" Simmons questioned when Skye was getting her S.H.I.E.L.D mandatory physical on her second day on the Bus.

"Pierced ears, no tats, no birthmarks, Soulmark on my hand." Skye reported dully. Seven years she'd had her mark and it hadn't done anything but tingle when she made some decisions. What use was it if it was just going to tingle?

"'Came to get you!'" Simmons read in her proper English accent, making a not on her tablet before taking a picture of it. "That's sweet. Have you met them?"

"You think I'd be running around with SHIELD if I had Soulmate waiting for me?" Skye rolled her eyes.

"I could run a handwriting search of the SHIELD database to see if your mark matches anyone on records." Simmons offered brightly after an awkwardly silent moment. "Though any search I do would be restricted to my clearance and bellow, and excluding specialists and field operatives - a safety precaution, you see - but, still; you never know if there could be a match."

"Sure, but I'm not holding my breath." She didn't know what she'd do if her Soulmate was S.H.I.E.L.D; her plan was to get in, get her information and leave before anyone got hurt. If her Soulmate was one of the Soulless government toolbags she hated so much it would really throw a spanner in the works.

* * *

The first time Skye met Antoine Triplett she was unconscious, so it doesn't really count. There was explosions, her heart not beating every few minutes, and an alien miracle-life-saving-brings-people-back-from-the-dead drug, so it would have been a cool story to tell if she'd been awake.

The second time he was one of the visiting Agents she was sending out to hunt down the Clairvoyant. He had an easy smile, warm brown eyes, and the sight of him made her mark tingle.

She'd heard about him from Simmons - about half of the Brit's conversations these days ended up mentioning him in one way or another - so she was excited to meet the man behind the blushing pink scientist. He was easy to talk to - and less creepy than his and Ward's shared S.O - and if he felt a burning in his mark when their hands touched when she handed him his phone, he didn't say anything.

Then he asked her about if 'her girl Simmons, what's the deal with her Fitz?' Was it romantic, platonic, had their bond formed (because everyone including the two of them knew they were Soulmates from matching the handwriting if nothing else), was she single. A tiny fissure appeared in her heart when she answered that FitzSimmons were totally platonic.

* * *

"Look out for Simmons out there?" Skye found herself requesting when Simmons had decided to stay at the Triskelion and Trip said he was staying as well.

"Anything for you, Girl." The man grinned, swooping down and pressing a kiss to her cheek before walking off. Huh.

* * *

"I'm on vacation."

Coulson and May were arguing, talking, discussing, fighting - wash, rinse and repeat - in one of the other rooms they'd rented at the seedy little motel in LA after her heroic rescue from Ward and Deathlok on the Bus. Fitz and Simmons were in a different room watching crappy sci-fi shows and drinking in the comfort of their Soul bond.

Skye and Trip were falling into bed with each other, warm hands trailing over soft skin, wet lips seeking each other out, light fingers tracing over marks on sweaty skin.

She didn't know how long he'd had his mark, but she recognised her own handwriting. 'What are you doing here?' scrawled messily over the curve of his right shoulder.

She was tempted to touch their marks, to see what sort of reaction it would elicit, but the thought was terrifying. What if it forced a bond and it made everything go wrong? What if he wasn't ready for a bond and he pushed her away? She could handle rejection better than the average person, but her Soulmates rejection?

Trip did something amazing with his tongue and all her worries flew out of her mind.

Hours later with his hand entwined with hers her mark - her whole body - felt like it was singing. That could also have been the amazing sex...  
Skye really liked this vacation!

* * *

It wasn't a one-time thing, she found out, when days - days? Weeks? How much time had passed recently? - later he turned up at her bunk with his easy smile and a comedy movie that they never got around to watching; too engrossed in each other to watch the DVD.

* * *

Fitz was in Intensive Care, Simmons was prepping for undercover work, Coulson was flying in and out of the base like a yoyo. But, Skye had three constants in her life now; training with May, stopping HYDRA, and Trip.

"Maybe it's not the best time, Baby Girl, but I'm fallin' pretty hard here." Trip murmured to her one night. Maybe it was the recent sting of Ward's betrayal, or it could have been the years of being sent back to the system when she started to love someone, but she couldn't bring herself to say she was falling for him.

Instead she kissed him, her fingers brushing his beard and trailing his chest. She could feel his heartbeat thrumming under her fingertips. Strong, reassuring, anchoring. Her mark warmed with every touch, every kiss, every tremble of orgasm.

* * *

Raina had the Obelisk and she was in the tunnels of the underground city. Skye couldn't just stand by and let her activate it, unleashing untold horrors on the world.

Raina was in the tunnels, Skye was trying to stop her, Trip. She could _feel_ Trip was close by. Why was he close by?

"What are you doing here?" Skye demanded, her hand reaching for him, not sure if she was pushing him away for his safety or pulling him to her for her comfort.

"Came to get you!" He said it like it was obvious at the same moment as her hand touched his shoulder. Even through his layers of clothes she could feel where his mark was.

The most significant words in their relationship; Trip coming to save her when she was trying to stop Raina from activating the Obelisk. She failed. Raina had already put the Obelisk on the pedestal in the middle of the room.

No no no no no. Was all Skye could think when a weird mist came out of the crystals that had grown from within the Obelisk, hitting them all. Raina looked delighted, she felt confused, Trip looked panicked.

She wanted to go to Trip - if they were going to die she wanted to at least be in her Soulmates arms when she did - but she couldn't move. She reached her arm out to Trip, a plea to save her as her whole body started to solidify. Trip - her Trip, her Antoine - looked lost, confused, desperate. He kicked at the crystal that had emerged from the Obelisk and it shattered like glass.

 _Trip!_ Skye wasn't if she could actually vocalise it as she watched in horror. Whatever was encompassing her reached her face, Trip was on the floor, reaching towards her in the same way she was reaching to him, one hand clutching his stomach.

He was turning to stone, not whatever was happening to her - she didn't _feel_ like stone - but actual stone. Like everyone else who touched the Obelisk. He was dying.

Because of her!


	2. What Are You Doing Here

_**WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?**_

Antoine was nine years old and listening to one of his Grandpa's stories about the old days with the Howling Commandos and Captain America when he gets his Soulmark. It was right after he decided he wanted to join the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division - which he wasn't supposed to know about - and make his Grandpa proud that his shoulder burns.

'What are you doing here?' He manages to read it in the mirror later. It's backwards in the mirror and upside down if he tries to look straight at it, and the wood-brown writing is hard to read on his dark skin, but it's there.

His Mama always said that Soulmarks were formed by the decisions that people made and who those decisions would lead them to. That solidified his want to join the secret Agency.

Sometimes when Antoine looked at his mark he wondered who it was going to be; maybe someone he was going to save from the bad guys, or another agent, he hoped it wasn't one of the bad guys!

* * *

When Trip was 22 and fresh out of the Academy he met John Garrett. One of S.H.I.E.L.D's best from what he'd been told. One of the first things Garrett had asked was if he had a Soulmark. The mark had felt itchy on his shoulder when he'd confirmed and he didn't like the derisive look he received.

"Cover it." Garrett had ordered, not even asking where it was or what it said. "It's a liability."

"Yes sir." He ignored the feeling in his mark, the feeling that it was wrong. So wrong.

* * *

Maybe he was being paranoid, maybe something really was going on. Trip kept it to himself when he got a bad feeling in his gut that Garrett and Ward were keeping secrets. He worked for a secret agency, of course there were secrets. Hell, it could just be something above his clearance level.

Garrett had been his S.O, but Ward had been Garrett's partner... Until he got pulled and placed on a team that his clearance said he couldn't know about. He was offered the vacant spot on Garrett's team and he didn't hesitate to say yes. If his mark thrummed happily on his shoulder he ignored it because Soulmarks were a liability.

* * *

The first time he'd seen her he had to consciously stop himself from rubbing his shoulder. A girl that had been shot in the gut twice by the guy they were there to pick up. Clinging to life by using machines and sheer force of will. The girl or the team around her, he wasn't sure which was stronger.

Skye. The girl looked barely more than a teenager. Pale, surrounded by white, covered in wires and tubes to monitor her and keep her alive.

When Garrett comes back and starts teasing him about the biochemist who was playing doctor with Skye he lets him. Because a Soulmark is a liability. A Soulmate is a weakness. He'll probably never see Skye again anyway. He's never seen her handwriting so it might not even be her words scrawled on his skin.

* * *

Next time he sees Skye she's making heart eyes at Ward and it leaves an unsettling feeling in his stomach. So he asks her about Simmons; is her bond with the engineer - Fitz - romantic or platonic?

He catches a glimpse of the words on her palm when she hands him his phone with the location of the suspected Clairvoyant on it; her 'Came to get you!' matches his 'What are you doing here?' perfectly. Their fingers brush and his mark tingles on his skin.

Trip isn't blind, he can see the way Skye looks at Ward, the way she goes to talk to him after the other specialist shot Thomas Nash. He watches the surveillance video and sees the way Ward vows to protect her... So he stays behind when Simmons is requested at the Triskelion.

"Anything for you, Girl." Trip can't help but kiss her cheek - if not her soft-looking lips - when she asks him to look out for Simmons. Anything for her. He'd do anything to make her happy.

That's when he knows he won't settle for platonic with her.

* * *

Trip goes with Coulson to track down one of the Fridge escapees. Even though it means leaving Skye with Ward - he's not worried about May or Koenig stealing his Soulmate.

Maybe because it means leaving Skye and Ward? Because he doesn't want to stay and watch her make heart eyes at another man.

* * *

Ward had once said he put two bullets in Garrett - a lie! - one for both of them. When Trip realises the man is an evil, duplicitous, HYDRA nazi-scum he swears he'll put a bullet in him for every second he had Skye.

* * *

Trip isn't sure who kisses who.

All he knows is everything had fallen to shit around them and Skye went to him for comfort - maybe as a default since the rest of the team had paired off - but he didn't care. Every touch a promise to protect her, every kiss a vow to stop Ward and HYDRA and Garrett, every time she gasps underneath him a thrumming in his mark - and his hear - that tells him he's on the right track.

When Skye is sleeping and Trip can't bear to close his eyes he watches her. Memorises her face, traces his words on her hand, resists the urge to kiss every inch of her body.

* * *

He thinks, even if they're not Soulmates, he's falling in love with her. He tries not to let it hurt when she doesn't say it back. She's had a rocky history with love; Ward, foster families, she's still searching for his parents.

He doesn't need her to say it anyway; he can hear it the way she smiles at him, in the taste of her kisses.

* * *

When Trip is running through the underground tunnels, racing to disable the explosives, his heart is racing, his mind is panicked, his mark is buzzing. He barely managed to make it to stop the last one from going off. Now he just had to find Skye.

"What are you doing here?" Skye demanded when he managed to slip into the small chamber, her hand reaching for his shoulder.

"Came to get you!" He can feel his mark burning as their marks touch, even through his clothes.

The entire world could have been caving down around them in that moment and he wouldn't have cared. As it was the world may actually cave in around them because despite all their efforts Raina had managed to activate the Obelisk.

"Trip!" Skye - his Skye - was frozen in place, something black and paralyzing creeping over her skin. She was reaching for him, he had to do something, he couldn't lose her. Her hand froze in the black substance.

NO!

He kicked at the crystal that had emerged from the Obelisk, it shattered under his touch, exploding outwards and throwing him off his feet.

He was on the ground, clutching at the piece of Obelisk-crystal wedge in his stomach, turning him to stone like so many other people. He could feel, Hunter had said that Hartley could feel it killing her, now he understood. His arms, his legs, he could feel them solidifying, no longer flesh and bone. The agony as they became stone and infected the rest of him.

Trip tried to reach for Skye, to touch her one last time, he wished he could tell her that he loved her. He'd never actually said the words even though he felt them.

He could feel his intestines, his organs, his veins, killing him as much from the inside as he was dieing on the outside.

I love you!


	3. Don't Die Out There

_**Don't Die Out There!**_

Lance got his mark later than most people. Most people got their Soulmarks in their childhood or teens. He was an adult - 26 - just left the S.A.S, just taken his first job as a mercenary.

Turns out the moment that would decide his Soulmate was becoming a mercenary. Well, he had always had a problem with authority figures, so what better than working on his own and doing his own thing? Especially if it led him to his Soulmate.

He couldn't actually read the words he'd gained, they were on the back of his left shoulder. It had taken a strategically placed mirror and a camera to see the words seared into his skin.

'Don't die out there!' In neat, grey-blue writing. Well, it was always a comforting thought that his Soulmate didn't want him to die.

* * *

The first time he'd seen her his breath had been taken away. Moonlight reflecting off her golden hair, the ocean breeze making it flutter around her like a halo. He hadn't even seen her face yet - though she did have an incredible ass - and he knew it was her.

Lance's mark was tingling on his back with every step he took towards her. She looked like an Angel.

The breeze rustles her hair and she flips it back, giving him a glimps of tan skin and pouty lips. His heart nearly stops when he's a few feet away.

Turns out beauty comes with a sharp tongue and a quick wit. And a quick wit comes with insane fighting skills that leave him in the dust.

* * *

If Bobbi sees her words on the back of his shoulder when they sleep together the first time she doesn't say anything. Though Lance does see her rubbing her wrist with a frown in the morning.

By that point he's certain that she's his Soulmate; from her grey-blue eyes that match the colour of his mark to the way his mark burns in an oh-so-pleasant way every time they touch.

He knows she sees it the second time, he can feel it when her light fingers trace the words. Lance can't help but shudder in pleasure and she quickly withdraws her touch, makes some lame excuse about a work meeting and gets dressed, running out of the room before he can properly understand what's happening.

* * *

He spends the next three days staring into the bottom of a bottle.

* * *

Bobbi never says anything about her Soulmark - he knows she has one, but she always covers it before he can see it properly. Even after they're married she doesn't stop covering it. Lance doesn't know if it's because she's not ready to bond or what - she's already said the words on his shoulders, and his mark tingles every time she says it still.

They argue about it.

They argue about a lot of things.

They still find their way back to each other at the end of long, difficult missions.

* * *

It's after a particularly difficult mission that Bobbi has that he sees her mark. She has a haunted look in her grey-blue eyes and keeps scrubbing at her hands even though they're spotlessly clean. Lance has to pull her out of the shower and hold her in his arms so she can't scrub her hands to shreds.

Her mark is on the inside of her right wrist in a coconut brown colour and messy handwriting.

Not the colour of his woody brown eyes. Not his handwriting. Not his words.

She was his Soulmate, but he wasn't hers!

Days later when she's getting better Lance asks her about it. It leads to another fight and a slamming door before he's left alone in their apartment.

* * *

When they get divorced - he can't deal with the secrets and lies, neither of them can deal with the fighting and constant slamming doors and leaving anymore - he sits in the bar (always the same bar) and wishes his mark had never formed. Maybe then it wouldn't hurt so much to lose her.

Franny's Saloon is where Izzy and Idaho find him a week later; unwashed, unshaven, halfway between hungover and drunk again. He tries not to ask Izzy how she's doing, but she reads him like a book anyway and says she's taking it about as well as him.

* * *

Hunter never thought he'd work with S.H.I.E.L.D. It had always been Bobbi's thing - the agency and the secrets she kept for it had been one of their fighting points when they were married - and yet he finds himself with Izzy, Idaho and Mack in an underground base.

He's been staring at a mission report when it hits him what's wrong with it. The writing. He'd memorised that writing. The same writing that was on the inside of Bobbi's wrist. The same writing that was not his writing.

He was willing to bet that the person who wrote the report has coconut brown eyes as well. Izzy stop him before he can find out who wrote the report - it doesn't matter, she says, how does she even know what he's planning when he only decided two seconds ago?

Then he's upside down in a car, Idaho is dead, Izzy is dead - despite forcing him to cut off her arm - and he doesn't know where Bobbi is to tell her that her best friend is dead.

* * *

Lance knows the writing, knows the coconut brown eyes eyes, knows that even if she is Bobbi's Soulmate her mark is for someone else.

How fucked up are they? His Soulmate has someone else for a Soulmate, who has someone else for a Soulmate themselves.

He can't even bring himself to hate her because she has no idea. She mocks him when he talks about his Hell-beast of an ex. She sits and drinks with him when he's mourning Izzy and Idaho. He manages to find out that she's never met Bobbi, and maybe he is a little bitter, because he hopes she never will.

* * *

When Bobbi comes back - as a brunette no less - Lance decides it's a bittersweet moment. After so long and so much hurt he's finally in her proximity again, bickering and squabling like when they were married - the non-malicious kind. But, she's also in proximity to her Soulmate.

Lance is prepared for fighting and Bobbi meeting her Soulmate and wanting to leave S.H.I.E.L.D behind because they can't be in the same building without something happening. Something is a very broad description because he knows it's going to be fighting, but he hopes it's going to be reconciling.

He knows Bobbi knows too, because she's the only one she hasn't gotten close to. That's the thing about Bobbi, everyone loves her. But, when she's around the blonde is suddenly not. When they're in a debriefing or meeting Bobbi is always on the opposite side of the room.

Bobbi's never put much stock in Soulmarks - or so she said - but it feels kind of like a rebellion when they end up in the SUV together. He'll take it, of course, they'll argue and fight and say things they both regret, but in the end of it all he loves her.

* * *

She loves him as much as she can.

He loves her more than she loves him. He doesn't blame her. But, it hurts.

* * *

 **This is what happens when I read all the Soulmate fics on Ao3 and decide to write my own; no fluid motion of thought, a shit-tonne of angst and a fic that makes you want to curl up in a ball and cry.**

 **Enjoy! :D**

 **Two more chapters to come; Bobbi is next, and then Bobbi's Soulmate.**


	4. Cruel Joke

_**Cruel Jokes**_

Bobbi was a recent recruit to the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division when her right wrist burned. Wrapped around her wrist like a branded bracelet.

She'd never given much stock to Soulmarks. Her parents hadn't been marked to each other. She'd seen people whose marks had died, or who hated their supposed Soulmate, or people who had a Soulmark that indicated to one person, but that persons Soulmark indicated someone else.

It wasn't that she was against the idea of having a Soulmate, of loving someone so totally and completely. It was that she didn't want a mark on her skin to decide who it was.

The coconut brown words had seared themselves on her wrist when she was filling out her information page. She guessed when she got to the body modification or unique identification part she'd have to put that down.

Two days after they appeared Bobbi covered the words up and vowed that she wouldn't let them dictate who she loved. They were just words after all.

* * *

Working a mission was the last place she expected to meet someone. But, Lance was... Infuriating, annoying, intolerable, incorrigible... Handsome, English, charming... Maybe she'd had a few too many drinks, maybe he really was that great of a guy, maybe her perception was clouded by his tongue down her throat...

* * *

Bobbi and Lance had amazing chemistry, no-one could deny that. Izzy told her once that they were either going to be the best thing that happened to each other or the worst.

The problem was that either they were having amazing sex, teasing and flirting. Or they were fighting, screaming and yelling. There didn't seem to be an in between for them.

It came as a blow when she saw the words in her handwriting on the back of his left shoulder. Is that why he was so persistent in getting her to go out with him? Was her handwriting on his shoulder the reason he had pestered her until she agreed to a second date?

She felt sick at the thought - the thought that he only wanted her because he had her mark - and left as soon as she could, leaving Lance naked in bed, looking like a confused puppy.

Izzy called her an idiot, and Bobbi couldn't stop herself from going back to the bar they'd met at for their first date. Lance was there with a cluster of empty bottles around him. Bobbi pursed her lips, she didn't say anything, couldn't stand to be around him right now or she knew she'd end up right back in his bed. But, she told the bar to cut him off, paid his tab and left.

* * *

Hunter kept coming back, like a bad rash that just wouldn't go away. He'd turn up on her missions and they'd end up in bed. He'd turn up at her apartment and they'd end up in bed. He'd turn up at Franny's Saloon and they'd end up in bed...

He'd propose to her with a delicate little diamond ring at the most inopportune time - in the middle of a mission he'd crashed ( _again_ ) - and they ended up married on the beach not far from where they'd met in California.

He didn't match her Soulmark!

She didn't care because she was convinced he was her Soulmate anyway.

Why didn't he understand that? Just because she had words on her wrist that weren't his didn't mean she loved him any less. He kept insisting she show him her words, to prove that they were meant to be. But, if that's what he was basing his decision on then she might as well leave.

That's how a lot of fights ended.

* * *

When Lance finally tells her he's seen the mark on her wrist they fight again. How could she not tell him that he's not her mark? What's she doing in the relationship if they're not Soulmates? What does it even matter about some words on their bodies? Doesn't love count for anything anymore? They don't have to have matching words to be in love!

He doesn't get it.

Why doesn't he get it?

She slams the door on her way out.

* * *

It's only after the divorce when she's drunk off her ass that she gets into S.H.I.E.L.D's database and runs the words on her wrist through the search. She'd been offered the option countless times before - and had almost caved out of pure curiosity - but she was determined that the words weren't going to dictate her.

There's a match!

It comes with a picture and a sample of her writing. The coconut brown eyes matched the colour on her wrist, the writing sample matches the words. The words of her Soulmark don't match her.

It's fucked up, Bobbi decides; her supposed Soulmate had a different Soulmate, and the man that she loves has her mark, yet it didn't work out. Maybe she holds a little resentment towards the girl because maybe it's her fault that her words don't match Lance's and maybe that's why they didn't work out.

She tries to tell herself that, but she knows it's not true. This girl never did anything wrong, but she'll never forget those eyes or that sweet smile.

Bobbi gets drunk again that night and Izzy has to drag her to bed when she comes home smelling like alcohol and familiar aftershave.

* * *

One night when she's undercover at HYDRA Bobbi pulls up the profile picture she'd saved of the girl whose writing was on her wrist. She swipes back and forth between her picture and Lance's until she falls asleep... She wakes up to the picture of the girl.

* * *

Bobbi knows it. Knows it in her head, logically, but the thought isn't processing.

Lance is there and it makes her heart ache painfully even though they're already bickering three seconds into seeing each other - personally she prefers her hair blonde too. Lance knows too. She can see it in the way his eyes flicker between them when they're in the same room, filled with hurt and longing.

She knew she was going to be there - how could she not? - but she was not prepared for being in such close proximity all the time. Her mark itched, it ached, it yearned.

It was her mark, not her!

She figured if she stayed away it wouldn't matter, besides, she had her own Soulmate now. Of course staying away from one person in the small base means she can't stay away from another. It's too small a space to avoid two people. And when she's not avoiding Hunter it inevitably lead to bed... Or an SUV as the case may be.

* * *

Pushing her Soulmate away doesn't really work that well. The pull is magnetic, she doesn't know if it's genuine affection or the result of the mark and she suddenly understands Hunter. It didn't matter if it was the mark or if it was her own volition; what mattered was that she was falling in love with the girl.

Now she avoided her because she couldn't stand be near her without crumbling, because her heart always skipped a beat now, because maybe she was realising that there was a reason they had Soulmarks. Even if they only led to heartache.

Then Puerto Rico happened.

Bobbi could feel her; the panic, the fear, the hopelessness. It made her nearly double over as everything started shaking. Her mark was burning on her wrist, nearly painful, nearly glowing. Even Hunter stopped to look.

* * *

It was a cruel joke.

If she had been marked to Hunter everything would have been simple, easy.

Hunter was marked to her, but she was marked to someone else, who in turn was marked to someone else. Who had died.

Trip was dead and Bobbi was packing up his belongings in his grandfathers old Howling Commandos trunk. Bobbi had known Trip for years - they'd been on a few missions together in the past, and recently - they were and she was in love with his Soulmate. She couldn't stand to go near quarantine; Skye was there. God, Skye!

The girl was devastated - rightfully so - and Bobbi may be selfish, but she couldn't stand to see it. So Bobbi kept herself busy to keep herself away. Packing Trips belongings, sparring with Mack, sleeping with Hunter.

She felt like a traitor; kissing Hunter, sleeping with Hunter, loving Hunter... Letting him love her... Letting Skye be alone in quarantine while she was with someone else.

Most of the time she liked to go one-on-one with the punching bag, letting out all her confusion and frustrations into the leather and sand. May had only found her crying against the bag once, though, so she counted that as a win!

Six days after San Juan, Bobbi caved and went down to quarantine.


	5. Beautiful Shit

_**Beautiful Shit!**_

Skye was hovering somewhere between the stages of _please kill me now_ and **why did it have to be him** when she first noticed it.

Admittedly she wasn't an expert on Soulmarks, but there were several universal truths about them:  
-One Soulmark only, no if, ands, or buts. It could be familial, romantic, or platonic, but there was only one.  
-If a persons Soulmate died the mark faded, to a paler version of what it was, but doesn't disappear.  
-There had never been a recorded case of a person having more than one mark...

Skye had Trips mark on her hand still, even after he was gone. But, it wasn't the dark chocolate brown it was before, it wasn't even a faded version of that like it should have been. The words on the curve of her palm were thin, red scars. Not like anything she'd seen before.

There were also new words on her skin. She'd scrubbed at them, scratched at them - even one ill-thought-out moment when she tried to bite at them - but they wouldn't go away. She'd gone into the underground temple with Trip as her Soulmate, and had come out with Trip dead and a new mark three inches away from the scars of his mark.

The mark was on the same hand and that just made her want to vomit.

Five words in a grey-blue neat handwriting on her left wrist. She knew the grey-blue colour, she knew the handwriting, she knew that the mark shouldn't exist.

* * *

Skye always made sure Simmons and the other lab techs took blood from her right arm, keeping the sleeve pulled down to cover her left wrist.

By day 3 in quarantine Skye had moved onto blaming herself. Because, let's face it, it was her fault. If she hadn't gone after Raina, Trip wouldn't have followed her. Neither of them would have been in the chamber. Trip wouldn't have died. Her mark would still be in Trips dark chocolate brown and not Bobbi's grey-blue.

There wasn't much to do in quarantine; sit on the bed and wallow in her own misery was the foremost option.

* * *

Coulson had come to visit, Simmons had been by before she went back to the temple to gather data and flood the place, Fitz came by, May came by and stood on the other side of the glass every morning for Tai Chi. Hell, even Hunter had come to see her.

But, they never stayed, and usually avoided the lab area other than those few minutes.

It was 6 days before Bobbi came with a colourful, stripy bag of snacks, cards and magazines. A Quarantine Survival Kit.

The new mark - the one she wished didn't exist - tingled on her wrist at the sight of the blonde. Small-talk was all well and good, but Skye didn't know what to say when she had a second mark and it was in her handwriting.

"I was beginning to feel like a leper." Skye muttered, picking at the tab on the Cactus Cooler can.

"Are you kidding?" She didn't think she'd ever heard the blonde's voice so soft. She didn't even know why Bobbi was there, to be honest, they'd never had a conversation before, never spent any time together. "You managed to be taken hostage by three known murderers, you gunned down Ward, then were blasted by an alien chemical weapon and walked out unscathed." Not unscathed. Her Soulmate was dead because of her and his words were reduced to scars on her skin. "Leper?" The blonde gave a short shake of her head with a small smile. "I think you're a rockstar!"

Skye couldn't help the gasp, dropping the can of Cactus Cooler and gripping her wrist where her new words were.

Soulmarks were meant to be the words that solidified a relationship. They'd never had a relationship, Skye actually thought Bobbi might have been avoiding her ever since she brought Simmons back from HYDRA. Now she'd lost a Soulmate, gained a new Soulmark, and had the new words spoken to her in less than a week.

"What did you say?" Skye's words came out as a panicked whisper.

"You shouldn't be-" Bobbi started, taking a step closer to the glass.

"You said it." Skye cut in, her voice shaking, She felt like her whole world was shaking. "You said it. How could you say it?" Her new mark was itching on her wrist and it only seemed to make Skye angrier. "He's dead!" The brunette screamed, Bobbi just stood there, stunned. "How can you just say that? How can you just say it when he's dead? He hasn't even been dead a week and-..." She fell to the floor, trying to curl in on herself as much as possible.

"Skye?" Bobbi was still, still on the other side of the glass, now kneeling so they were closer to the same level. Skye tugged at the sleeve she'd kept over her left wrist so vigilantly over the last 6 days, thrusting her arm out.

"How could you say it now? Why now? Why ever?" The blonde let out a gasp of her own when Skye's sobbed words reached her. Ten words that curled around her wrist like a bracelet in coconut brown, messy scrawl. The coconut brown of Skye's eyes in her messy handwriting.

The words to solidify their relationship were an accusation. She'd always known they would be. Maybe that was part of the reason she never let herself get close. Whole lot of good that did her.

"Skye." Bobbi let her hand touch the cold glass between them, trembling at the thought of-...

No. That wasn't her trembling. It was the glass, the ground, the everything. Earthquake!

Skye didn't notice, curled in a ball in the quarantine room, and Bobbi was half a second from breaking the glass and getting her out of there when Mack came running through, dragging her away, and she was too stunned to fight him.

* * *

If Hunter knew about Bobbi and Skye he didn't say anything. He kissed her in the right places, touched her in the right places, didn't say anything when another name slipped from her lips once - or twice - when they were together.

If anyone else knew about Skye's new mark and that they'd both said each others words already, they didn't mention it. Not when Skye got out of quarantine, especially not when they were gathered together for a drink Trip's name.

No-one said anything when Skye had more to drink after the laughs were over and most everyone had gone to bed.

Bobbi left some water and aspirin on her bedside table when she looked in on Skye in the middle of the night; the brunette's face tear-streaked, and clutching a picture of Trip to her chest.

* * *

Bobbi never told Gonzales or the rest of Real S.H.I.E.L.D about Skye and their marks.

* * *

Hunter kept pressing, asking questions about her secrets. Questions about Mack - they weren't really in a support group, even she'd been surprised he had bought that to begin with - questions about their future, about if he should stay. The silent, un-asked questions about Skye...

She already felt conflicted enough about Coulson's S.H.I.E.L.D and the Real S.H.I.E.L.D. Why did she have to have the emotional turmoil about Hunter and Skye as well?

Hunter, the man she loved, the man she would never stop loving no matter how many fights or arguments they had, or how many snide remarks and insults were hurled. The man she had once married with the intention of spending the rest of her life with him.

Skye, her Soulmate. As much as she tried to believe in making her own Soulmate and not loving someone based on some words on her skin, even she couldn't deny it. The attraction, the magnetism, the way her heart thumped a little harder whenever Skye smiled. The love. Deny it as much as she wanted, it was love and it wasn't familial or platonic.

She'd met people who hadn't met their Soulmates yet who insisted they knew what sort of bond it was, just by feeling it. Bobbi had been in denial when she said that was stupid, because when she had focussed on her bond at any time in the last 13 years it hadn't been a familial bond, or a platonic bond.

And having met Skye and fallen in love she knew there was truth to it.

It didn't make her trilema any easier.

Hunter, Skye, Real S.H.I.E.L.D...

* * *

By week two after the incident everyone was referring to as 'San Juan' Skye was back in the field chasing after a man that had beaten the shit out of Lady Sif.

As luck would have it - or maybe A.C found out about her new mark and had a twisted sense of humour - Skye had been sent with Bobbi to the hospital.

They hadn't talked since quarantine. Hadn't interacted since Trip's memorial - Skye hadn't been able to bring herself to go to the funeral, she couldn't face the mother who had lost her son because of her. But, even she knew who left her aspirin, and tucked her blanket around her at night, closed her computer when she fell asleep coding, made sure her favourite cookies were always in the pantry.

Skye never thanked her.

* * *

Fitz had run past saying the Kree and Lady Sif were trying to take Skye.

The whole building was shaking around them, glass beakers were falling and breaking from lab benches, the occasional window or door shattered from the pressure, Bobbi felt her blood run cold.

The Kree had knocked out Mack and Hunter in a matter of seconds and then had the audacity to mock her for fighting him. She wasn't fighting him for the fun of it, she was going to kick his sorry blue ass for even thinking about hurting Skye.

Hours later after Coulson and May had taken Sif and the Kree to go back to their realm, after they had all cleaned up the broken glass everywhere, after Mack had said they needed to be protected from Skye and the girl had run off... Bobbi went to the cage on the bus.

Secrets were bad; secrets led to people getting hurt, secrets broke up her marriage, secrets were making her sick to her stomach.

She didn't go into the cage, just sat outside on the floor. She knew Skye knew she was there, so she waited. Waited for Skye to tell her she was okay - she wasn't okay, not by a long shot. Waited for Skye to let her in. Waited for something that never came.

Hunter was the one that came to collect her in the middle of the night when she was still sitting in the hallway outside the cage.

* * *

The next day Hunter confronted Mack about their secrets. Then he was gone.

* * *

May video called her every morning for Tai Chi. Coulson called to see how she was doing. Fitz called to chat - and ask about the gloves he and Simmons designed, did they help her like they were meant to? Simmons called, all flustered and insisting she was still her friend, she did not want to eradicate her like Raina.

Bobbi never called.

Skye never heard from Bobbi at all, but she did find herself waking up cold some mornings because the blonde hadn't made sure she was covered with a blanket, or with her laptop battery dead because she hadn't come while she was sleeping and put it away.

Skye didn't ask any of her team about Bobbi, and they never volunteered the information beyond saying that Bobbi had broken up with Hunter - again - and then he'd gone missing.

Bobbi had broken up with Hunter.

Skye ignored the way her new mark tingled.

She wasn't meant to have a new mark, she didn't want to have a new mark, it had barely been a month since Trip died. She wanted Trip, not a new mark or a new Soulmate.

* * *

A familiar face, Bobbi had said, a friendly face. Gonzales had bought it, believed that she was just going because Skye was a friend.

Skye wasn't a friend.

Skye was... Her Soulmate, the girl she was in love with, the girl she'd do anything to protect.

Icers only. But, most of them had real guns with real bullets.

Her mark tingled, it itched, it burned. It wasn't a conscious decision, but Bobbi let it lead her to Skye, following the warm hum of her mark to her Soulmate. Shots fired, her blood ran cold. Calderon started running, she started running, her heart was racing.

"NO! SKYE!" At the same time as Calderon's real gun with real bullets fired. No, no, no, no, no!

* * *

Bobbi's scream echoed in Skye's ears for days. The sounds of trees exploding, guns firing, Bobbi's scream... It haunted her nightmares.

Worse than getting shot by Quinn, worse than Ward being a traitorous HYDRA Nazi, but right alongside Trip turning to stone and crumbling right in front of her. The nightmares blurred together; Trip standing in the woods, everything shaking around them as he turns to stone with Bobbi yelling for her. Bobbi in the chamber, a piece of the Diviner in her gut the same way it had happened to Trip, betrayal and fear clear across her face. Acupuncture and meditation couldn't stop the nightmares that fueled the earthquakes.

* * *

If Bobbi had to pinpoint the day everything in her life went to shit it'd be the day San Juan happened. The day she realised she was falling in love with Skye. Or the day HYDRA came out of the shadows. The day she realised she was falling in love with Hunter. The day she got her mark... So many days.

The second she'd found out Ward had taken Skye - to HYDRA, to her psycho father - she'd sworn she would end him. One way or another, she'd end him. When she'd found out that he'd been on the Bus with Skye, had the audacity to try and work with her again, to try and reconcile with her, she'd spent three hours with the punching bag until her knuckles were bloody and raw.

Bobbi could suffer through the torture, through Ward and Palamas' taunting and psycho delusions. She could bide her time and take it, endure through the pain. Because in the end; she swore she'd hurt Ward a thousand times worse.

She'd kick his ass for think about Skye. Torture him for hurting Skye. _Kill_ him for everything else.

For the way Fitz had struggled through recovery because of Ward, for the way even May had been fooled by him, for the way kept talking about fucking **closure** because she'd taken a risk and done her job. She'd kill him. She never enjoyed killing - it was part of the job sometimes, and not a good part - but she'd enjoy killing him.

She probably could have taken him, killed him on the spot, if Palamas hadn't been there.

Now she sitting and waiting for someone she loved to come and die.

* * *

Bobbi knew someone was coming for her. Hunter most likely - Skye still couldn't stand to be around her and maybe that hurt worse than Ward's torture - and he knew it was a trap. The idiot was coming to save her even though he knew it was a trap. Because he loved her.

Lance was at her side after a moment of stunned silence after the shot.

After her mother had died. After her fathers memory had been replaced. After she'd chosen the wrong side in a war she'd helped to start. After Coulson lost his hand, and Simmons disappeared, and Hunter had come back covered in Bobbi's blood.

Skye was alone.

Hunter had been shooed off to shower and eat and sleep, ordered to stop hovering because it might be endearing, but it was also annoying as all Hell. Bobbi was in her bed in Medical, as alone as she was.

Skye's mark hummed on her skin when she stood outside, watching the blonde. The faint red scar three inches north of Bobbi's mark tingled faintly too. Trips mark.

"Hey." Bobbi smiled weakly when Skye finally got the guts to go into her room.

"Hey." She hovered by the door, but Bobbi patted the spot next to her on the bed. "You look like shit." Skye blurted out; cuts, bruises, bullet hole in her shoulder, royally fucked up knee thanks to Ward.

"Thanks." Bobbi let out a short laugh followed by a wince.

"Beautiful shit." Skye tried to amend, earning another huff of laughter.

"How are you doing?" Skye looked up from her fingers in surprise. "Not exactly the best family reunion from what I've heard."

"Something like that." Skye snorted, "but I'm not the one with a hole in my shoulder."

"Physical wounds heal faster than emotional ones." How could she lay there an say that when they both knew that she would need months to recover. That even after physical therapy and all the best medical care, she would still have scars, still get pains in her knee.

"I have to go-" Skye got up, barely a minute after she'd sat down. How could she sit here and be perfectly fine when Bobbi was hurt? Bobbi was hurt and may never be the same and for some reason _she_ was comforting **her**. It wasn't right.

"Wait!" The blonde yelped, reaching out to grab her arm and they both froze. Bobbi's right hand was gripping her left forearm. Her skin tingled in anticipation; they're marks were centimetres apart. "Skye." One word. It was a plea, a declaration, filled with sorrow, desperation, hope...

"We are so fucked up." Skye muttered, it was up to her, they both knew it. She closed the distance between their marks, letting the bond ignite between them. "You'd think this would have been our words if we were any kind of normal."

"Normal is overrated." Bobbi shook her head with a smile. "Besides, I'm kind of grateful I don't have 'Beautiful shit' stuck on my arm."

* * *

Lance was standing outside Bobbi's room, watching the love of his life bond with someone else.

* * *

 **Despite how it may appear, I actually do like Hunter.**


End file.
